Screw Your Shoes

Ah, winter: my least favorite season of the year, but mainly because the others are so good. Despite loving skiing, I can't bring myself to hang up my running shoes. For the months when roads become packed snow and ice I dedicate a pair of shoes to winterize and I’m good to go. I have a pair of Microspikes for really icy conditions, but for the most part I find them to be too much aside from semi-mountaineering type outings. Modifying your shoes with sheet metal screws gives you flexibility to have as much or little additional traction as you’d like, and you can customize the placement based on how you land when you run. They are super lightweight, cheap, don’t need to be taken on and off like yak traks or a similar type of traction, and if you still have life in your shoes after winter, simply unscrew them and keep on running.

These are the screws I use. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that you want them short enough that they won’t poke through your midsole: 3/8ths size works great.

I find that I don't need too many to make me feel solid on the roads, so I put them at the heel and the midfoot/ball of the foot. I tend to be on the lateral part of my foot so I place one a little lower than right at the ball of the foot on the lateral side. If you know that you land differently, you can put them at the spots that see the most contact with the ground.